Another week of shooting as flown by, but unfortunately its not been one of my best, but then again its only partly been one of my worse ones, or at least compared to recent shoots.
Tuesday's practicing went fairly well, most grouping together, but did see a pile getting stuck in the boss, no real problem getting it out with pliers, yes I'm aware I should have pushed it through rather than pull its out, but due to indoor bosses being tightly tied together rather than undoing and forcing it through it was just as easy to pull it out again using needle nose pliers. But apart from that went well.
Thursday was a Bray 1 day, being a new month best to put in a new score early and improve on it later, but my shooting was fairly erratic and I had a shocking amount of misses, out of a possible 30, in two Brays I only hit with 21 and 24 respectively, which recently is rather bad for me, as I normally have 2-4 misses. But as the scores weren't too far off my personal best (PB) despite the erratic shots the ones I hit were making up. For example one end of 6 arrows were scored as 10, 10, 7, 10, 1, M = 38 which for an end with 3 tens in is pretty bad, but can't be helped now. Suffice to say I've not made the longbow team this month (yet). After starting the first Bray with an end of 3 misses in a row, one archer quipped that it was very surprising because while practising, I'm normally consistently in the target, hovering around the centre.
So Sunday was a new start and was a Postal Portsmouth, which the past two I have done have been improvements, and up till then had no misses. But Sunday proved to be the fatal day where one arrow, for reasons known only to itself flew off above the target missing the paper completely favouring the saw colour. During the ends I was noticing that my shooting would be nicely grouped and then scatter shotgun style, so I'm obviously doing something wrong, bracing height has slipped a bit so might have to correct that, I'll figure it out when I get time. Though despite the miss I managed a score of 407 59/6 which, not being my best, is better than the first one I did, so despite being tired still shooting fairly well. Oh a congratulations to Shaun Allen for setting a new club longbow record of 524 for a Portsmouth, well done to you. Also well done to Doug Shaw for investing in a longbow, though you compound archers might moan a bit more.
Still think they should put a longbow archery event in the Olympics seeing as its one of the origins of archery, and has yet got no modern equivalent. Recurves stem from the old composite bows, compounds.......well dunno what they are based off but I'm guessing it was an American who came up with it (I'll have to look that up). But I'd also like to see more clubs to be friendly towards crossbows, ok people say the damage the bosses, but if you put limits on the heads do they damage them anymore than other types of modern bows?
Didn't help much that the pile I re-glued came loose and just pulled off again in my hand, think its time to invest in some new glue, and let it set for longer next time. I need new glue for making arrows for my heavier bow anyway so not put out too much.
Since I've not been sleeping much over this past week, this may account for the erratic shooting. With the Chester shoot looming, and being my first external shoot going to be practising as much as possible, might even try to straight some of my more banana shaped arrows, but a bit wary to doing this incase I make them worse, though I suppose never know until you try.
Till next time, happy shooting all.
Monday, 10 January 2011
Monday, 3 January 2011
Holiday Flights
Happy New Year readers, the holidays are over, or are close to being over and a whole new year full of possibilities. Plus a whole new year of shooting =D
Well the gifts of Christmas brought about some new arrowheads, short bodkins. But according the the rule book bodkins are not allowed, but seeing as they aren't like old fashioned bodkins I may be alright, I'll have to see. I may have to have a second set of arrows to shoot competitively with and just keep the bodkins for practice. Though I've not been told the weight so will have to see if the club has a scale for measuring the grain.
Since I last posted up here, the club has had the Christmas fun shoot. This involves team shooting in games like pontoon. For those who don't know how to play a suit of cards is strung up diagonally on the boss and your team shoots at it trying to get close to 21 without going over. If you go over your bust, picture cards count as 10 and Ace counts as 1 or 11. Plus just to make it a bit interesting some of the ends were timed so whole team have to shoot in 1minute, 45/30 seconds. But careful sometimes random rounds chosen by the judge are won by the lowest score (without going bust). But watch the other teams as a few inventive ways of scoring occur ed.
Next team game was a balloon popping race, of which your team went in turns to shoot a single arrow at a boss covered in balloons and the first to pop their balloons get lots of points, next fastest gets less and so on. This was fun and longbow archers were off the line almost as soon as they got on. A note goes to Steve Dunn for his amazement/frustration as he put an arrow through a balloon without bursting it, and just to prove nothing in archery is certain every compound archer managed at least one arrow where they didn't pop a balloon.
Sunday just gone was meant to be the January Frostbite, but fate obviously decided that I need more sleep and didn't let my alarm go off, so I woke up way after the shoot had finished, so missed. BUT this coming Sunday is the postal Portsmouth, so its gearing up and practicing for it.
Until next time happy shooting everyone.
Well the gifts of Christmas brought about some new arrowheads, short bodkins. But according the the rule book bodkins are not allowed, but seeing as they aren't like old fashioned bodkins I may be alright, I'll have to see. I may have to have a second set of arrows to shoot competitively with and just keep the bodkins for practice. Though I've not been told the weight so will have to see if the club has a scale for measuring the grain.
Since I last posted up here, the club has had the Christmas fun shoot. This involves team shooting in games like pontoon. For those who don't know how to play a suit of cards is strung up diagonally on the boss and your team shoots at it trying to get close to 21 without going over. If you go over your bust, picture cards count as 10 and Ace counts as 1 or 11. Plus just to make it a bit interesting some of the ends were timed so whole team have to shoot in 1minute, 45/30 seconds. But careful sometimes random rounds chosen by the judge are won by the lowest score (without going bust). But watch the other teams as a few inventive ways of scoring occur ed.
Next team game was a balloon popping race, of which your team went in turns to shoot a single arrow at a boss covered in balloons and the first to pop their balloons get lots of points, next fastest gets less and so on. This was fun and longbow archers were off the line almost as soon as they got on. A note goes to Steve Dunn for his amazement/frustration as he put an arrow through a balloon without bursting it, and just to prove nothing in archery is certain every compound archer managed at least one arrow where they didn't pop a balloon.
Sunday just gone was meant to be the January Frostbite, but fate obviously decided that I need more sleep and didn't let my alarm go off, so I woke up way after the shoot had finished, so missed. BUT this coming Sunday is the postal Portsmouth, so its gearing up and practicing for it.
Until next time happy shooting everyone.
Sunday, 19 December 2010
Highs & Lows
Welcome back, or hello for those who haven't been here before. This weeks archery has been a mixture of good and bad results, more on the side of bad than good, but hopefully be able to fly out of the slump soon.
Tuesday there was a tragedy, another raven has fallen, knocked out of the sky by one of its own flock passing to close. I Robin Hooded (shot through my own arrow) on of my arrows splitting the nock and the wood down to the binding making it unshootable unless I strip it down and shorten it, but I'd need more than just the one so for the moment it is laid to rest with its brother who suffered a similar fatality previously. But that was not the only injury, another raven had its tail cut short (broke the nock), but luckily that one has been replaced and is eager to fly again.
Thursday was the December monthly medal, and despite doing well on Tuesday and the previous Thursday my shooting wasn't fairing to well. The monthly medal is a FITA 18, which is five dozen arrows on a Bray 1 target, so effectually two consecutive Bray 1 rounds. I managed 254 48/0, which to me isn't that good due to the amount of misses as it seemed that I was missing with almost every 3rd arrow, with an average Bray score of 127 24/0 which isn't bad, but isn't my best either. Suffice to say I didn't manage to retain the longbow medal but just means I have something to shoot for next month.
Today being Sunday saw the opening of the December frosbite shoot, but with the snow that fell on the Friday still lingering it being around 2-3" very few archers turned up. So few in fact it was just myself and Steve Dunn, a fellow longbow archer who had taken one for the team and brought out his recurve for this shoot, seeing it is technically a recurve postal round. So there were a brief passing comment of "we few, we crazy few" and a couple of odd looks by people come to the rugby club. Despite the snow it was a nice day sun was warm, there was no wind, and as long as you had decent boots and thick socks the cold didn't really reach you. The more interesting was when there were a few stray arrows and they left trails for you to follow in the snow, though digging them out did leave your fingers cold and numb. By the end of the shoot I walked away with 145 31/0 which is about the same as the last frostbite but still in my eye not overly that good, but just means more practice is needed.
With Christmas looming next week there is the Christmas fun shoot to be looking forward to and in two weeks is another Frostbite which hopefully will be better attended but we'll see. Till next time, stay warm and a MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
Tuesday there was a tragedy, another raven has fallen, knocked out of the sky by one of its own flock passing to close. I Robin Hooded (shot through my own arrow) on of my arrows splitting the nock and the wood down to the binding making it unshootable unless I strip it down and shorten it, but I'd need more than just the one so for the moment it is laid to rest with its brother who suffered a similar fatality previously. But that was not the only injury, another raven had its tail cut short (broke the nock), but luckily that one has been replaced and is eager to fly again.
Thursday was the December monthly medal, and despite doing well on Tuesday and the previous Thursday my shooting wasn't fairing to well. The monthly medal is a FITA 18, which is five dozen arrows on a Bray 1 target, so effectually two consecutive Bray 1 rounds. I managed 254 48/0, which to me isn't that good due to the amount of misses as it seemed that I was missing with almost every 3rd arrow, with an average Bray score of 127 24/0 which isn't bad, but isn't my best either. Suffice to say I didn't manage to retain the longbow medal but just means I have something to shoot for next month.
Today being Sunday saw the opening of the December frosbite shoot, but with the snow that fell on the Friday still lingering it being around 2-3" very few archers turned up. So few in fact it was just myself and Steve Dunn, a fellow longbow archer who had taken one for the team and brought out his recurve for this shoot, seeing it is technically a recurve postal round. So there were a brief passing comment of "we few, we crazy few" and a couple of odd looks by people come to the rugby club. Despite the snow it was a nice day sun was warm, there was no wind, and as long as you had decent boots and thick socks the cold didn't really reach you. The more interesting was when there were a few stray arrows and they left trails for you to follow in the snow, though digging them out did leave your fingers cold and numb. By the end of the shoot I walked away with 145 31/0 which is about the same as the last frostbite but still in my eye not overly that good, but just means more practice is needed.
With Christmas looming next week there is the Christmas fun shoot to be looking forward to and in two weeks is another Frostbite which hopefully will be better attended but we'll see. Till next time, stay warm and a MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
Friday, 10 December 2010
Portsmouth Postals
As the name suggests this week was the postal league Portsmouth round, which is five dozen arrows on a 60cm target. Despite the less than average turn out, I think the club managed to cobble together the four recurve teams (though this did include 4 longbowers) and at least 2 out of 3 people for the compound team. But the weather was mild and the rain had melted most of the ice on the road so was much less slippery, overall pleasant evening walk and shoot.
The Portsmouth target despite being the larger of the indoor targets was one I'd practiced less on, yes I practice on the smaller targets with a longbow, I did rather well. Only recording a Portsmouth round once before, my personal best was increased by 51 points, final score was 438, 60 hits, 11 Golds. Seeing as both my Portsmouth round score had no misses, it means I'm honing myself more into the centre, esp as I was enjoying being congratulated every so often by fellow longbowers for shooting good ends. Despite my last half dozen having a few arrows deciding they were bored of colours and prefered the white rings, it was still good enough to beat two other longbow archers only coming second (out of the longbows) to Shawn, who set a new club record, but I'm catching up so bit more practice and who knows.
The more interesting result is that I'm still beating recurve archers, which as said before for a longbower novice with no sight aids is pretty good. Yeah I might get better scores with recurves but longbows are or least to me, so much more relaxing and feels right in the hand. I read a series of books recently where one character (surprisingly called longbow) said he always felt his bow was just an extension of his arm, and though it might not have begun that way, it is getting more like that to me.
Quick change of topic before I go. While looking around on some archery shop websites, I noticed a type of fletching called "raven".......it looks like half an arrow head, so I might invest in some them out next time I make a new flock (12-arrows) see how they go. Still thinking of having the two black arrows, might have them with warheads on.....hmmm think about it a bit more see what conclusions I come to, they'd look nice.
Stay tuned for next week, it'll probably be a little later because there is a frostbite on Sunday, so if its not wet the cloak might be coming out. I'll try to get pictures.......so stay tuned.
The Portsmouth target despite being the larger of the indoor targets was one I'd practiced less on, yes I practice on the smaller targets with a longbow, I did rather well. Only recording a Portsmouth round once before, my personal best was increased by 51 points, final score was 438, 60 hits, 11 Golds. Seeing as both my Portsmouth round score had no misses, it means I'm honing myself more into the centre, esp as I was enjoying being congratulated every so often by fellow longbowers for shooting good ends. Despite my last half dozen having a few arrows deciding they were bored of colours and prefered the white rings, it was still good enough to beat two other longbow archers only coming second (out of the longbows) to Shawn, who set a new club record, but I'm catching up so bit more practice and who knows.
The more interesting result is that I'm still beating recurve archers, which as said before for a longbower novice with no sight aids is pretty good. Yeah I might get better scores with recurves but longbows are or least to me, so much more relaxing and feels right in the hand. I read a series of books recently where one character (surprisingly called longbow) said he always felt his bow was just an extension of his arm, and though it might not have begun that way, it is getting more like that to me.
Quick change of topic before I go. While looking around on some archery shop websites, I noticed a type of fletching called "raven".......it looks like half an arrow head, so I might invest in some them out next time I make a new flock (12-arrows) see how they go. Still thinking of having the two black arrows, might have them with warheads on.....hmmm think about it a bit more see what conclusions I come to, they'd look nice.
Stay tuned for next week, it'll probably be a little later because there is a frostbite on Sunday, so if its not wet the cloak might be coming out. I'll try to get pictures.......so stay tuned.
Friday, 3 December 2010
The Ice Walk
Hello again everyone, its been another week of archery. With the cold weather moving in the walk to archery is getting more tricky as when I set off at around 6pm the sun has long since set and the cold night has arrived. Not really a problem, but recent snow fall that is now turning into ice due to the amount of heat and compression due to people walking on it the four miles can get a bit slippery. Cold wind doesn't help much either but the "assassin" outfit as it has been dubbed, is out and within minutes of the walk the cold doesn't reach me, though people are still shocked that I walk. Surprising though how many people aren't turning up since the snow compared to how many did before it fell. The roads I walk along aren't snowy or icy and coated with a good amount of grit, but I suppose people have their own reasons. Oh funny little thing happened on the Thursday walk, two boys on the other side of the street throwing snowballs at random passersby both see me, and back away down a small side road.
Another downside to this forty-five minute walk is that my bow gets very cold, making it very stiff, so I have to give it a good rub down before I shoot it properly. Alright you people at the back stop sniggering, I dunno people these days :p
With the start of the new month comes a new month of postal league shooting, so shooting Bray 1 rounds at whenever possible to try and get good score recorded to beat the other clubs around. Due to Tuesday's currently being filled with beginners shooting a round of any type can be very slow between ends, so its just really good for practice and socialising. Thursday again being quite due to the cold weather was quite good for shooting, so after a few ends to warm up my muscles and the bow more than anything else, a Bray 1 round was started and I managed to beat my personal best of 149, with a score of 158, 28/30 hits, 0 golds. Just because I didn't get any golds, doesn't mean I didn't hit the gold part of the target. The golds are the 2nd ring (for longbows and recurves) so, basically I hit near the centre but not direct centre. With only 2 misses as well its very good for a longbow archer, esp a reasonably new one that makes his life harder by shooting without any shooting aids. I did do a second Bray 1 but this was much worse only scoring 115, 26/30 1gold......The amount of hits and the fact I managed to get a gold, is good its just when I did hit they were pretty wild on the target rather than focused in the centre like the first. Oh well, can't win them all, esp in archery, but its a good start for the new month.
I have discovered though that through body movement I'm starting to know before I'm even at full draw whether the shot is going to be a bad one or not, downside is I feel its going to be a bad one, and don't come down and do it again, so that's one thing I have to get into doing. Its not as easy as you thought, its like trying to throw a ball and just as your about to let go going back the way you came till your just holding it.
Hmm I really need to get some pictures up on here.......maybe next time.
I've got to get myself in a training routine to build up my shoulders and back muscles for the next out door season when the heavier bow arrives, as well as order some new shafts and heads so I can make a new flock of ravens (arrows). Hopefully someone will give me something towards it for Christmas, but if not then no worry.
That's all for now people, stay tuned for more.
Another downside to this forty-five minute walk is that my bow gets very cold, making it very stiff, so I have to give it a good rub down before I shoot it properly. Alright you people at the back stop sniggering, I dunno people these days :p
With the start of the new month comes a new month of postal league shooting, so shooting Bray 1 rounds at whenever possible to try and get good score recorded to beat the other clubs around. Due to Tuesday's currently being filled with beginners shooting a round of any type can be very slow between ends, so its just really good for practice and socialising. Thursday again being quite due to the cold weather was quite good for shooting, so after a few ends to warm up my muscles and the bow more than anything else, a Bray 1 round was started and I managed to beat my personal best of 149, with a score of 158, 28/30 hits, 0 golds. Just because I didn't get any golds, doesn't mean I didn't hit the gold part of the target. The golds are the 2nd ring (for longbows and recurves) so, basically I hit near the centre but not direct centre. With only 2 misses as well its very good for a longbow archer, esp a reasonably new one that makes his life harder by shooting without any shooting aids. I did do a second Bray 1 but this was much worse only scoring 115, 26/30 1gold......The amount of hits and the fact I managed to get a gold, is good its just when I did hit they were pretty wild on the target rather than focused in the centre like the first. Oh well, can't win them all, esp in archery, but its a good start for the new month.
I have discovered though that through body movement I'm starting to know before I'm even at full draw whether the shot is going to be a bad one or not, downside is I feel its going to be a bad one, and don't come down and do it again, so that's one thing I have to get into doing. Its not as easy as you thought, its like trying to throw a ball and just as your about to let go going back the way you came till your just holding it.
Hmm I really need to get some pictures up on here.......maybe next time.
I've got to get myself in a training routine to build up my shoulders and back muscles for the next out door season when the heavier bow arrives, as well as order some new shafts and heads so I can make a new flock of ravens (arrows). Hopefully someone will give me something towards it for Christmas, but if not then no worry.
That's all for now people, stay tuned for more.
Saturday, 27 November 2010
Raven's Sight
The close of another week saw the clubs monthly medal and this time despite my success at shooting well enough to earn the handicap medal, this week proved a some what more prestigious medal, or at least in my eyes. I managed to shoot well enough to win the monthly longbow scratch medal. This means that I manged to shoot a higher score on a Bray 1 round compared to other longbow archers that were competing. I will admit that the longbow archers I were competing against weren't the best that the club has to offer, but both archers still have years of experience compared to myself. The two other longbow archers I was competing with did use aiming aids, e.g rubber band around the bow, or a stand on the ground to adjust their aim to compensate, while I myself shoot purely by eye alone so if I can be competitive without their benefits, then I know that even though at times I may not shoot as well as I could at least I am shooting out of pure judgement and skill alone. I know its not the best way to shoot but I prefer the traditional, I means whats the point of having alot of gizmo's to make you hit the gold all the time, whats the point. All helps to my goal of building up to a proper English Warbow.
I have ordered a new longbow to be made for me ready for the next outdoor season at a hefty 55lb draw at 26", by a Mr Adrian Hayes made from Ipe, Lemonwood and Bamboo. This is quite a bit heavier than my current bow so it'll mean starting to build up my shoulder and back muscles to cope, being bamboo it will also be alot faster than my current bow made from Hickory, Purpleheartwood, and Lemonwood, so this means that I'll be able to reach the further targets with my arrows, while at the moment I'm limited to about 60yrds, 80yrds at a push. But being able to reach further targets means I can reach higher ranking classifications, and earn medals that I can keep, rather than the monthly ones which have to be given back.
I have ordered a new longbow to be made for me ready for the next outdoor season at a hefty 55lb draw at 26", by a Mr Adrian Hayes made from Ipe, Lemonwood and Bamboo. This is quite a bit heavier than my current bow so it'll mean starting to build up my shoulder and back muscles to cope, being bamboo it will also be alot faster than my current bow made from Hickory, Purpleheartwood, and Lemonwood, so this means that I'll be able to reach the further targets with my arrows, while at the moment I'm limited to about 60yrds, 80yrds at a push. But being able to reach further targets means I can reach higher ranking classifications, and earn medals that I can keep, rather than the monthly ones which have to be given back.
Friday, 19 November 2010
The Natural Archer
Another week of archery gone, actually I've only practiced on one night this week due to problems and after the awful shooting at the end of last Sunday I was determined to pick myself up and get my eye back in.
Now with the darker colder evenings less people are coming to shoot on some nights, which in all honesty I find quite good for shooting, there isn't alot of noise so you can focus on what your doing and your not worried about people hitting your arrows, or being squashed by people being either side of you.
It was interesting shooting this week, I didn't score my ends* but I could see I was mostly keeping inside the red rings, I don't know why but my arrows don't seem to like the gold much, they'll shoot all around it and only on occasion stray into it. But the end of the night I was getting pretty tired and quite hungry so my shooting started to go off, pains in body areas (why I only went down one night this week) was making me think too much. Looking at the time I only had about 20mins before I'd set off home, so decided to relax and just shoot randomly, not aim not line up try to get the shot right and not really care where they land, as long as they are in the boss. Note I said boss not the target. (the boss is the thing you stick the target onto, usually straw).
So half heartily I grabbed my bow and shot 6 arrows, quicker than normal and without thinking or aiming, and to my surprise they all hit the target. Not only did they all hit the target the majority were reds and golds, so I did this for 15 minutes and was amazed to see the same outcome, though the shots did get worse towards the end as I was thinking about shots more trying to adjust to better the next arrow. Really just shows that archery is a sport that you need to relax and enjoy rather than pushing yourself all the time, and getting annoyed at the odd stray arrow. But its funny how you can not care about it and do well, I'm assuming this is because of body memory, do things often enough and your body remembers how....Its often interesting to note you're body will tell you your doing something wrong after you've done archery for a while, and you know what shots are going to be bad, before the arrow hits the target, sometimes even before they hit.
Anyhow, monthly medal next week, so stay tuned and see if a tale of a hero, or of woe.
*An end is where you shoot 3-6 arrows then collect them.
Now with the darker colder evenings less people are coming to shoot on some nights, which in all honesty I find quite good for shooting, there isn't alot of noise so you can focus on what your doing and your not worried about people hitting your arrows, or being squashed by people being either side of you.
It was interesting shooting this week, I didn't score my ends* but I could see I was mostly keeping inside the red rings, I don't know why but my arrows don't seem to like the gold much, they'll shoot all around it and only on occasion stray into it. But the end of the night I was getting pretty tired and quite hungry so my shooting started to go off, pains in body areas (why I only went down one night this week) was making me think too much. Looking at the time I only had about 20mins before I'd set off home, so decided to relax and just shoot randomly, not aim not line up try to get the shot right and not really care where they land, as long as they are in the boss. Note I said boss not the target. (the boss is the thing you stick the target onto, usually straw).
So half heartily I grabbed my bow and shot 6 arrows, quicker than normal and without thinking or aiming, and to my surprise they all hit the target. Not only did they all hit the target the majority were reds and golds, so I did this for 15 minutes and was amazed to see the same outcome, though the shots did get worse towards the end as I was thinking about shots more trying to adjust to better the next arrow. Really just shows that archery is a sport that you need to relax and enjoy rather than pushing yourself all the time, and getting annoyed at the odd stray arrow. But its funny how you can not care about it and do well, I'm assuming this is because of body memory, do things often enough and your body remembers how....Its often interesting to note you're body will tell you your doing something wrong after you've done archery for a while, and you know what shots are going to be bad, before the arrow hits the target, sometimes even before they hit.
Anyhow, monthly medal next week, so stay tuned and see if a tale of a hero, or of woe.
*An end is where you shoot 3-6 arrows then collect them.
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